Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: dark chocolate mousse  Sound: glasses clinking, cheers  Smell: strawberry wine  Sight: a lake on a summer’s day and people enjoying it and the sun lying on docks and blankets on the grass and standing on paddle boards  Touch: smooth, thick, creamy  Extra: aging; ritual  A jolt of joy sunlight  Grateful for: health

Taste: sweet chili  Sound: low growl, barking, high-pitched barking  Smell: urine and feces  Sight: a black-tailed deer  Touch: matted fur, ribs, hip-bones  Extra: a grey hyena, a black shipping container, a beautiful collie, bureaucracy, “My dogs! My dogs!”  A jolt of joy a wagging tail  Grateful for: sunny days, no-cheese popcorn

Taste: carrots crisp and sweet  Sound: morning birdsong  Smell: patchouli smoke  Sight: ducks in a pond, hopping in all in a row, one at a time, swimming, a beautiful pond, water over rocks in sunlight  Touch: silky fur, sleeping body; paws in stomach  Extra: memories of skates  A jolt of joy a well-crafted sentence; a correctly spelled word  Grateful for: Susan Palwick’s books and stories